The world is
changing. What worked in the past doesn’t necessarily work now. I got into two
conversations yesterday which turned to the same topic. How can we reinvent
ourselves and help one another; some to provide a service while others are the
artists selling their work.
Now, I do
not know that much about marketing (my weakest point) as I don’t enjoy it and
don’t want to have to do it. I think, too, in the back of my mind is always the
concern of how much trust to put into the ones with whom you do business. It
seems to me that the bottom line to marketing is convincing the public to
purchase what you are selling whether it is good or not and more and more these
days we find out that what we are told is not often the truth or products don’t
hold up as advertised. (It’s a form of brain washing with the media and
advertising pounding it into you that you HAVE to have this product or… well, I
won’t go on.)
We’ve come
to know that corporate America doesn’t have our best interests at heart and for
CEOs and shareholders it’s all about making as much money as possible without
caring who gets stepped on or taken advantage of or even if what they are
selling is good. Maybe I have a biased notion of big business, but everything I
am seeing and reading makes these convictions stronger. It seems the bigger the
company, the more political and corrupt it becomes. At that point, it’s not
about providing goods or service to the public, but what they can suck out of
people. It’s all about making as much money as they can and to hell with the
consequences.
What does
that have to do with my topic today? My conversations yesterday were with a
framer of art who is not doing the job she loves best and a woman in the
printing business who is working for a ruthless company. Here are two women whose
expertise in fields could benefit many artists and yet, they are not able to
work to their potential.
I had two
questions: “How can we reinvent ourselves to help one another and still be able
to make a living?” and “How can we compete with mass produced cheaper products?”
Is it
possible? I believe it is. We just have to figure out how to do it. For most of
us in today’s world, we are not able to have our one dream job. We have to have
the job that pays the bills. Some are lucky to have a spouse to provide that
avenue, but for the many single women out there these days, the dream is put
aside so bills can be paid.
How can we
help one other? How can small-town framers and printers provide affordable
services to the artists and be able to support themselves? I would dearly love
to give work to local business. I would love to be able to sit one on one with
a printer to discuss exactly what will work for me. And, in this do-it-yourself
world (which is another subject I can go off on). I would much rather devote my
time to my art and not fight with matting and framing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful
to support each other so we are all doing the jobs we love?
I believe it
can be done. Somehow.
No comments:
Post a Comment